Strawberries are ripe and ready to go, and so our merry band left the city to freshly pick these sweet red berries for our next installment of Farm Fresh ice cream: Strawberry Basil Shortcake!
Our jaunt took us north of Seattle to Schuh Farms, a 250-acre family owned farm in Skagit Valley. The day was cloudy but not too cool. Perfect weather to work in the fields. As we pulled off the road we were greeted by a charming farmhouse and a large white barn: their lovely farm store. The store was filled with flowers, berries and other produce plus some delightful vintage finds.
Schuh Farms produces a wide variety of crops from April through December, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. In addition to their diverse produce, they have chickens and fresh eggs, homemade baked goods and relishes and preserves! They make community involvement a priority through U-pick berries and CSA subscriptions, and by participating in local farmer’s markets in both Skagit and King counties. Seasonal community offerings provide fun for the whole family. Each autumn they have a pumpkin patch, corn maze, and hay rides. During the holiday season they have fresh-cut Christmas trees, wreaths and holly!
Receiving our buckets, we were directed to the strawberry fields across the road. We meandered past other crops and through an apple orchard until we reached the strawberries. The strawberry fields were full of rows and rows of leafy plants, close to the ground, without any hint of fruit! Pushing the leaves aside revealed the largest, juiciest, reddest strawberries. We were delighted to discover that the fields were full of them, tucked away just out of sight. The day contained all the joy of a satisfying Easter egg hunt as we uncovered more and more of them until our buckets were heavy with mounds of strawberries. We returned to our car to load up all the strawberries and enjoyed the smell of their ripe sweetness all the way home!
These strawberries are destined for greatness in our upcoming Farm Fresh Strawberry Basil Shortcake ice cream. This ice cream is layered with basil-infused cake and ribboned with a homemade strawberry basil sauce. These flavors blend to create a quintessential summertime treat that’s smooth and creamy with bursts of juicy strawberries, an accent of fresh basil and rounded out with cake bites evocative of the biscuits from a traditional strawberry shortcake. It’s a dreamy summertime blend of flavor and texture. Check us out on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to know when this ice cream arrives in our stores, and to keep up with all of our seasonal Farm Fresh flavors rolling out all summer long. Look for scoops at our Capitol Hill, Ballard, 108 Pine and Queen Anne cafes; and pints at all of our locations, including our West Seattle and Madrona cafes. We look forward to seeing you!
